June 25 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Laura laying down landscape fabric in the Finley Lane Nursery.

Laura came to the farm to help with scything, weeding and setting out “red ball traps”.  Red Balls are fake plastic apples that we smear a gooey substance on called “Tanglefoot.” The apple maggot flies are attracted to the red apple-like spheres and get caught up in the sticky Tanglefoot when they land on them. This makes them easy to count. Once we get a certain number of catches, we know it’s time to spray.  We also laid down black landscape fabric in between the rows of newly grafted trees. The landscape fabric smothers the emerging weeds and minimizes the need for more weeding.  We all love that!

I also picked up an old cider press at a friend’s this morning.  It’s in rough shape but could be valuable in the future for pressing small batches of cider.  Cider season is not far away! 

June 24 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A few last asparagus spears in a well-weeded bed

Today marks the end of asparagus season at Super Chilly Farm. It’s been a great season. One of the things that can be different about living on the farm and eating what you produce yourselves is that the foods all have a season. It has been asparagus season for several weeks. There’s an old expression, “Make hay while the sun shines.”  You could change that slightly and say, “Eat what’s available when it’s in season!” So we ate a lot of asparagus for over a month. We ate it prepared in many ways, and it was delicious. But a now we need to allow the remaining spears to grow to maturity in order to feed the roots for 2025.  Today, in between the raindrops, I weeded about half the patch.  For asparagus to remain healthy and productive, it needs to be weed-free.  Once it gets overgrown it can be impossible to resurrect.  Not quite done yet, but it’s looking very spiffy!

June 23 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A tray of Sparkles 2008

Today is the height of Strawberry Season which brings up a question I gets asked regularly: how did you and Cammy get together? Was it my obsession with apples?  Cammy’s passion for growing vegetables? Our mutual love of teaching young people? All of the above? None of the above?

Actually it was all about a strawberry. Most of you probably think that a strawberry is a strawberry, but not all strawberries are the created equal. There are strawberry varieties. As with apples, most strawberry varieties (aka cultivars) are selected—you guessed it—for their large size, productivity, firmness, and ability to ship. Not their flavor! The strawberry at the root of our romance has none of those qualities: it’s medium-size at best, unproductive, not all that firm and would ship terribly if anyone bothered to try.  But it turns out that we both love this strawberry and consider it the epitome of perfection. The strawberry is called Sparkle.  

Sparkle originated at the New Jersey Ag Experiment Station in 1942. It is a cross between Fairfax and Aberdeen.  Fairfax is reputed to be THE best tasting strawberry in the world, but alas it is almost impossible to find any more and neither of us have ever been able to try it. (Fairfax was introduced by the amazing breeder Albert Etter who also came up with the Wickson apple among many others.) The only bad thing about Sparkle from our perspective is that once you try it, it’s difficult to eat any other strawberry. It’s that fantastic. When you go to your local U-pick Strawberry place, ask for Sparkle.  It is rarely but occasionally grown commercially, and if your grower really knows their berries, they’ll know Sparkle.

June 22, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was MOFGA’s annual Farm and Homestead Day, a small but wonderful educational event focusing on skills we all might find useful in our lives. I taught an apple ladder workshop. We made a beautiful ten-foot pointed ladder with rails of cedar, ash rungs fashioned with a draw knife on the shaving horse and a point made of apple wood. A number of attendees stopped by to help during the day. It was a rainy day but productive and fun.

A high-light of F and H Day was seeing Sy Scholtz and hearing him talk about scythes, snaths, blades and all things Scything. Most people think that scything on the farm and in the orchard is antiquated and irrelevant. Far from it. Scything is great for your body and your spirit, uses no electricity or fossil fuels, and enables the user to do large scale as well as detailed grass and perennial mowing anywhere on the farm. The scythe itself is a simple, elegant and magnificently designed tool that can be sharpened to a razor edge. Everyone should have one. But watch out for your toes! 

Three scythes in Umbria, Italy (2006)

June 20, 2024

Keepsake apples. (Frostbite (MN 447) x Northern Spy from NYC.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura came over and scythed at the Finley Lane Orchard. Later we went through the remaining apples in the root cellar and composted most of what was left.  There is a bushel of Roxbury Russets in still in good condition as well as smaller amounts of several other cultivars including Keepsake.  Keepsake is from the University of Minnesota breeding program and is a superior storage fruit. We often have them in June.  We also picked up a truck load of pine boards sawn by Bruce Potter our neighborthat we will use for making or repairing apple boxes.   

June 17, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A brand new heap ready for the great inhalation

I worked in the orchards and gardens near the house and barns, doing some late planting and cutting back spring growth to make paths into the fruit trees. I capped off one compost heap with a load of year-old cow manure and started a new heap nearby. The compost piles are 6 foot square and about 5 feet tall when complete. They are built one layer at a time with soft wood poles (primarily spruce, fir and hemlock). The poles are not tied or screwed together; they just rest on one another. The building of the compost pile is the in-breath, and the dispersal of the finished compost is the exhale. When we inhale, a large amount of air is sucked into our lungs. When we exhale, the concentrated air leaves us and spreads out into the world around us. Into the heap goes plant material from throughout the farm.  At the end of the season when we clean up the gardens, the garden-remains are collected and concentrated into just one or two heaps. There they decompose over the next two years. In spring we get out the forks and shovels and spread this concentrated material throughout the farm. That is the exhalation. The compost pile is the entire universe focused in one small space. Inhale and and focus; exhale and discharge!  

June 16, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today we completed inventorying the fruit throughout all the orchards. The crop is light but still worth the attention. We sprayed all the fruiting trees late in the day, finishing up about 7:30 PM. Alyssa was here to help. We sprayed 100 gallons:

  • Surround: 1 bag 25 lbs

  • Cueva copper: 1 qt

  • Double Nickel: 1/2 lb

  • Regalia 1 qt

  • Cyd-X 1.5 oz

  • Multiple plant teas: 1 gallon each

Chives are in full bloom but not much longer

June 15, 2024

Fruit this June on the original Scout tree

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today we worked in the Finley Lane nursery and orchard. Alyssa was there all day to assist. We weeded all the 2024 newly grafted trees and seedlings and a row of dwarf (Bud 9 and G 11) trees (no herbicides, please). We went through most of the trees in the orchard and tagged those with fruit. The trees are nearly all on standard rootstock and are just beginning to bear. Noting which ones have fruit is useful for many reasons, one of which is that when we spray fruiting trees only, we know which ones to spray.

Finley Lane is an old tract of land we purchased a decade ago adjacent to our farm. It was initially cleared and then farmed by two families before the Civil War.  By 1900 the farm buildings were gone, and the land was owned by someone named Finley. Finley Lane is a narrow dirt road leading to the old cellar holes. We began to farm the part of Finley Lane we call “the nursery” in the early 1990’s. Twenty years later (2013) we purchased the property and expanded our operation there. Since then we’ve planted about 500 apple and pear trees.

June 14, 2024

The little squirt of orange-brown sawdust at the base of this young apple tree is an indication of a borer inside. Time to get out the knife and the wire. You don't want a borer inside the tree

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today I scythed around 40 trees at the Finely Orchard. One of the primary purposes of scything is to clear around the trunk to see if there are any borers  in the tree. (see photo). The other reason is to trigger a bunch of under-ground activity.  As Michael Phillips wrote in The Holistic Orchard: “The mowing tool itself has relevance as well for this first orchard cut… for the benefit of fungal allies. … This … mowing causes root mass in perennial plants to shed just as the spring root flush begins.  This enhances access to nutrient zones for the tree— with the help of mycorrhizal fungi…Adding to the outer edge of the fungal duff this way feeds the saprophytic fungi, which in turn makes even more nutrients available to the feeder roots…”  If there’s a third reason to get out the scythe, it would yet another opportunity to observe every tree one at a time.

In 1979 (or so) I made up this little ditty about spring. It goes:

“When the spring is sprung and the seeds are sown beyond the garden gate,

The scythe is hanging in the barn while the patient farmer waits.”

Or as one of my fortune cookies so aptly said, “A handful of patience is worth a basketful of brains.” That waiting game is now over.  Hooray!

June 3, 2024

A Chestnut crab tree grafted in April and now in the nursery with the newly installed irrigation drip tape running by.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

This morning we weeded 2023 nursery apple trees and a row of dwarf trees. Later I re-mowed all the paths through the orchard, set up irrigation to the newly grafted trees with Cammy and watered all the newly planted trees. Everything seems to be growing faster than is “humanly” possible. The young seedlings scattered along the rows that we topworked in May are being buried in the grasses that are already nearly waist-high. It is time to begin weeding the younger trees (1-12 years old) in hopes of reducing competition and finding any borers that snuck in last year. First step is to scythe back the tall grass and perennials from around the trees.  Then we weed around the base of each tree, all the while looking for the saw-dust frass—the sign of borer activity. Around July 4th we’ll paint all the trunks with pure Neem oil. The Neem will smother the new eggs of the adult borer beetle.  We hope. 

June 1, 2024

The Lady Slippers are in full bloom now. Marissa counted over 140 in out BRC orchard.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura and I sprayed all the fruiting trees on the farm with Surround, refined clay powder.  We mixed it with Regalia and Grandivo. The primary purpose of Surround is to deter Plum Curculio. It was a beautiful morning to be out in the orchards and the spraying took about 5 hours. Later Laura made a new batch of plant teas to be sprayed next week, and I spent about 6 hours weeding and watering the 2023 and 2024 young grafted trees.  It was a long day, but the nursery is looking pretty spiffy.  Many wild plants are flowering now throughout the farm.  

May 28, 2024

Vilberie is an old English bittersweet that was likely brought to England from France in the late 19th century.  It’s late ripening and said be decently bitter. It is also late blooming, one of the few trees currently in full bloom .

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today the farm dried out slowly after 1 3/4” rain yesterday afternoon and overnight. The sun came out and it warmed up. Laura came by and we strategized about next spraying options. We decided that we’ll spray tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM.

May 30, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Nearly every apple tree on the farm is now at petal fall, and small fruitlets are forming rapidly. I took a break from the orchard today and worked in the Main Garden. The primary activity was constructing a 36’-long arbor tunnel for pole shell beans. These are a SCF favorite. The construction took most of the day using about forty 1 - 1 1/2” diameter hardwood poles.  It should look pretty fantastic covered with beans.  Around the farm the quince are all now in bloom.  A close relative to the apple and pear and very susceptible to fire blight, the quince come into bloom very late, thus increasing their susceptibility. It’s about time to begin doing major weeding in the nursery and around the young trees in the orchard.  Saturday we’ll spray surround again.

Bunk and Nick, celebrating the completion of the new bean arbor. Nick was an apprentice here at SCF about ten years ago.  Nick is now a farm manager at Johnny’s Selected Seeds. His son is named Finley. (What else?)

May 29, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Laura and I sprayed two tanks beginning at 5 AM.  We sprayed Cueva (copper), Regalia, Double-Nickel and assorted herbs teas including Comfrey, Dandelion, Horsetail, Nettles, Willow and more. The objective is to strengthen the apple trees to fend off fire blight as well as other pests and disease. Cammy continued to transplant vegetable plants into the big garden, and later she and I planted the potatoes up at the nursery. We have taken most of the remaining 2023 apples from the root cellar and added them to the compost piles.  In the process we have begun to discover this year’s best keepers.  Roxbury Russet of course still look very good, but some others do as well.  In the next few days we’ll go through all the remaining bags in the root cellar and see which apples are still great. So far it looks as though there will be some excellent apples in amongst the rotten ones.

Here is Bunk planting a Roxbury Russet in its place of origin, Roxbury, MA with a group of local youth. Roxbury Russet, possibly the oldest named apple in the US, is one of the best of all keepers traditionally grown in Maine.  Outstanding for cooking - Bunk considers it his favorite winter sauce apple.

May 25-27, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

In honor of Memorial Day, a picture of our most patriotic plant, the President Lincoln blue-flowering lilac

On May 25 Alyssa helped me planted 131 apple seedlings in the Finley Lane nursery. These were of several mothers - fathers unknown.  We planted the seedlings about 7’ apart.  The seed was collected in December, 2023, stratified for 3 months this past winter, planted in flats in April, transplanted into cell trays at the beginning of May. We have been hardening them off in a hoop house for two weeks.

On May 26 we inventoried all 330+ apple trees in the Finley Lane orchard. We were looking specifically for newly opened flowers that are unprotected by Blossom Protect as well as any signs of fire blight.  We found 23 trees still in bloom or newly so.  About half of these cultivars were European cider apples and half are American selections. Depending on conditions in the next few days, we will spray these as well as late-bloomers in our other orchards for fire blight protection.

We also found some early signs of fire blight infection. We snipped off most of these branch ends and will do a closer inspection later this week. The most susceptible cultivar so far appears to be the rare historic English apple, “Court Royal.”  Also on May 26 we sprayed “Surround” liquified clay on the plum trees which are now at petal fall. We spray surround on the trees to irritate and deter plum curculio.

On May 27 we transplanted sweet and dry corn seedlings to the garden just in time for the rain. Most apple trees on the farm are now at petal fall. A few have begun to form small fruitlets.  The lilacs are in full bloom. We have an assortment of colors along the walkway to our house. The combination of the lilacs, the Kaleidoscope crab and the Sargent crab make a great combo.  

May 24, 2024

One of our favorite crabapples. It’s named Kaleidoscope, bred by a crabapple breeder in Ohio and named by Cammy. It’s an outstanding tree!

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was not nearly as hot as it’s been the past few days. The risk of fireblight, however, remains high. With over 300 cultivars we have a wide range of bloom times - some trees have flowered and dropped their petals days ago while flowers on other trees are just beginning to open.  The yeast product (Blossom Protect) that we spray only works on open flowers. Every day flowers are opening that are not protected by yesterday’s spray. So we have sprayed 3 times in 3 days, and we may be spraying again before long. A lot of the flowers on the apples have now dropped—called “petal fall”.  The bloom is so beautiful. It’s sad to see it going by.    

Our plum trees are about to be attacked by an unpleasant weevil-type bug called plum curculio. Protection from PC takes another spray of a clay product called Surround. 

May 23, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was a challenging day on the farm. The temperatures were high, the apples are in bloom (many of them) and rain was predicted: the perfect trifecta for fireblight. After communicating with Steve Meyerhans of the Apple Farm in Fairfield, ME , Glen Koehler (pronounced KAY-LER) of U Maine extension and Mike Biltonen of Know Your Roots in NY, we decided to spray a second application of Blossom Protect.  Cammy helped  me with the spraying. As we finished, a huge storm blew in. Thousands of apple flower petals swirled around us in the wind.  We retreated to the safety of the house.  The storm blew over with a heavy downpour. Now we get to hope that the Blossom Protect did its thing and the fireblight stays away until another day. Although we lost a lot of flowers in the storm, a lot remain.  As night settles in, we are reminded once again that we really do live way down in the woods, surrounded by trees and serenaded by singing bugs and frogs and owls.  They’ve got us outnumbered by about 1000 to one. It’s home.

May 22, 2024

Bunk doing something impossible earlier this spring: making a beautiful pie (with help from Ingrid Bathe).

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”  Francis of Assisi

“The possible has been tried and failed. Now it’s time to try the impossible.” Sun Ra

Today was Sun Ra’s 110th birthday, or his arrival day as some people call it since he came from Saturn.  To celebrate, I’ve re-committed to doing the impossible whenever possible.  Yes, it might seem as though what you want to do in life is impossible, but so what?  Do it anyway! Like living in an apple orchard and eating the food you grow yourself. Today I did some mowing in the orchard and then sprayed a yeast product called “Blossom Protect” on every flowering apple tree. (There are many.) It seemed like an impossible task but we finished the spraying as darkness descended on central Maine and the full moon was rising in the East.  

May 21, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Two of my favorite ornamental crabs: to the left ,“Red Jade” weeping crab (with white flowers) and to the right, “Semi-weeping Red” with its wonderful red flowers. 

“Don’t go nowhere. What do I care?”  Fats Waller

Today was Thomas “Fats” Waller’s 120th birthday.  To celebrate, I’ve re-committed to going nowhere as much as possible. It’s more fun here with the trees. With the blast of heat we’re getting, it seems like every apple tree in central Maine is in bloom or about to be. We also have a huge challenge looming on the horizon - Thursday will present a major risk of fire blight thanks to the combo of heat and moisture. Tomorrow we will spray a product called “blossom protect” in hopes of fending it off. All over much of Maine orchardists are in a serious panic. Fire blight can be devastating. We have our fingers crossed.